AKA:
Devil Fish, AKA: Shark: Rosso nell’oceano (original title)
Directed by: Lamberto Bava (as John Old Jr. for some reason)
Written by: Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates), and Sergio Martino (as Martin Dolman) (story)
Gianfranco Clerici, Herve Piccini, Vincenzo Mannino (as Frank Walker, and Dardano Sacchetti (screenplay)
Lamberto Bava (additional material)
Creature created by: Ovidio Taito
Starring: Micahel Sopkiw and Valentine Monnier
Also, a devil fish.
I don’t think there is any real point to trying to give you a synopsis for this one. I mean, you watched the trailer, right? It’s a nonsense-fest. But I can tell you want one so, here goes:
A biologist, a dolphin trainer, a researcher, and a cop all go on look-sees for a big ol’ monster fish. He’s a genetic hybrid (you might remember genetic hybrids from my previous entry on 1993’s Carnosaur – this isn’t gonna be a theme, it’s just coincidence so don’t fret). Part Dunkleosteus, which you can see here 👇,
but also part octopus, a creature which I feel confident you’re familiar enough with that I don’t need to provide a photo for context. But here’s the best/worst thing about him: he’s a hybrid in the way that a Fiji Mermaid is a hybrid. Or, you know, like…just…a regular mermaid is, I guess. He’s one thing on top (murderous fishface), and the other (tentacle-beast) from midway down – but his octo-bottom isn’t really ‘octo,’ for reasons that are unclear to me. He’s only got 4 tentacles. Bad Devilfish. I don’t know, it’s all very strange.
The film is set in Florida, and was actually shot in Florida, and the actors were all either American, Italian, or Latin American.
But the beer they were drinking was 100% European.
I don’t know why I felt it was necessary to tell you that, other than that I noticed it immediately. They’re all drinking from the babiest little cans. I imagine that communication difficulties may have been had on set due to several potential language barriers, and honestly, I feel like that explains a lot about this movie. And like many Italian movies (at least at the time – I admit I’m not ‘up’ on modern Italian cinema), the dialogue was shot in everybody’s own native languages and then dubbed over in post, so…you should probably be prepared for that. Personally, I have a real affinity for dubbed movies, so it doesn’t bother me, but if you struggle with dubbing, probably skip this one as the syncing isn’t always top-shelf.
I just had so many questions pop up while watching this. Like, why were they diving into such shallow water? WHYYYYYY does the devilfish only have 4 tentacles? Why did they build that whole ass monster only to take a single shot of it flopping woodenly beneath the water that they then proceeded to use no less than a thousand (ok, but like 5) times? AND HOW WAS THIS CRAPFEST DIRECTED BY THE SAME GUY WHO GAVE US DEMONS?!
At 95-ish minutes long, this movie is going to feel easily twice that, right up until the 90 minute mark. Everything from there forward is going to be fast, brutal, and wonderful.
You can find Devilfish on Epix or Prime, but I’m not sure why you’d want to.
